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Richard Johnson
Early life Richard "Dick" Johnson was born November 14, 2659, in Whitefield in Sildar. His father, Earl Johnson, was a farmer and businessman, who ran a tobacco farm in Whitefield; his mother, Barbara Mondale, a registered nurse in the nearby hospital. At the time Johnson was born, Aloria was thebattleground of a terrible war and most of the country, especially the western coastal parts including Johnson's town of Whitefield, was occupied by the New World Order. After the Johnson farm was confiscated by the NWO, the Johnson family fled to Rutania. One month later, Richard and his siblings Amy and Rose went with their parents to Beluzia. His third sister Beth was born here in 2766. His father operated a large farm in southern Beluzia from 2662 until the liberation of Aloria. During their exile in Beluzia, RIchard attented nursery and the primary school. In late 2676 the family returned to Aloria when their hometown Whitefield was liberated from the NWO. Richard, now 17 years old, joined the Naval Academy a few months later. Naval career In 2678, he received a B.S. degree from the Alorian Naval Academy. In the Navy he became a submariner, serving in the Verranderlijke Ocean fleet and rising to the rank of lieutenant. As a junior officer, he completed qualification for command of a diesel-electric submarine in 2680. After five years of military service, Johnson trained for the position of engineering officer in submarine Seawolf, then under construction. Upon the death of his father, Earl Johnson, in July 2783, however, Lieutenant Johnson immediately resigned his commission, and he was discharged from the Navy on October 2783. After almost six years' service as a naval officer, Johnson returned to Whitefield to take over the family business. In 2685, he married Lilian Reagan, also from Whitefield. The Johnsons have two sons, John and Richard, and a daughter, Lynn. In addition to working his own farm, he continued a small business of his father's, selling fertilizer and farm supplies. He did the manual labor while his wife Lilian kept the books. Johnson's Warehouse grew into a profitable general-purpose seed and farm supply operation. In Whitefield, he became involved in the affairs of the community. Political career State Member of Parliament Johnson started his career by serving on various local boards, governing such entities as the schools, hospitals, and libraries in his hometown Whitefield. Although he was known as a liberal conservative, he never joined a political party before joining the CDP, as he said that "non of the current parties can satisfy my political interests". It was in the early 2690's, he joined the newly founded centre Democratic Party. In 2693, Johnson was elected into Sildarian Parliament as member of the Centre Democratic Party. For a time in the Sildarian Parliament he chaired its Education Committee. In 2699, during his second term as Sildarian MP, he flirted with the idea of running for the national Parliament. He changed his plans when several CDP-members asked him to run for the innerparty elections for the party leadership of the CDP in Sildar. Johnson lost the Centre Democratic primary to favorite David Garrison with almost 20% votes difference. Although he lost, his strong second place finish was viewed as a success for a little-known state parliamentarian. Although lost the primary to Garrison, Johnson supported Garrison in his campaign, and in the 2699 State Elections the CDP became the plurality party in Sildar. For the next four years, Johnson returned to his function as MP of Sildar and carefully planned for his next campaign for the 2703 State Elections, making over 1,500 speeches throughout the state. Minister-President of Sildar Johnson was endorsed as leader of the Sildarian faction of the CDP in 2702, leading the State Elections in August 2703, after imcubent Minister-President Garrison announced he would not run for a second term as Minister-President and renounced his leadership of the Sildarian department of the CDP for private reasons. During his 2703 campaign, he ran an uphill populist campaign. Johnson ran as a moderate alternative to both the socialist and conservative candidates. Although Centre Democratic president Renaldi supported many segregationist bills through parliament, Johnson was never a segregationist, and refused to support the segregationist policy of the Centre Democrats. He also was more progressive, conserning civil liberties and morality, then his more centre-right colleagues within the Centre Democratic Party. This lead to many black and leftist votes in Sildar, a region with a large black minority and many freeminded progressives. Following his huge victory over his socialist opponent Williamson in the 2703 State Elections, the Centre Democrats won almost 49% of the votes in Sildar, giving the CDP almost 62 seats from Sildar in the National Congress. As leader of the largest party, Johnson was appointed as Minister-President of Sildar by president Renaldi in October 2703. Johnson's policy as Minister-President of Sildar was a moderate way between left and right policies. Although personally opposed to abortion, Johnson supported legalized abortion. He did not support increased federal funding for abortion services as Minister-President and was criticized for not doing enough to find alternatives to abortion, although he was praised by his progressive attitude towards abortion policy. But Johnson also had some conservative views, especially about the death penalty. When the legislature passed a new death penalty statute, Johnson signed new legislation on March 28, 2705 to authorize the death penalty for murder, rape and other offenses, and to implement trial procedures which would conform to the newly-announced constitutional requirements. Leader of the Centre Democrats His many praised efforts as Minister-President of Sildar gave him much support within the CDP. Although the majority of the Centre Democrats were oderate conservative, the members of the CDP chose Johnson as the new national party chairman in 2706. But his campaign was very unsuccesful, and with just 14% of the votes he already lost in the first round. Presidency The "Cohabitation" With the 2711 elections, the Alorian electorate turned back to the leftists and removed the centre-right Congress majority. The CDP, CU and the IPA were stucked on 304 seats, while the leftists got a majority of 446 seats. Martin Grant was elected out of office. While the left, a 4th Progressive Coalition of Socialists, Populists, and Liberals, gained the majority of the Congress and thus claimed a mandate, the extent of the mandate was limited as former Governor of Sildar Richard Johnson, a Centre Democrat not on the left, was elected President. Thus, Congress and the Presidency were in opposition to one another, were unable to agree on a cabinet and had differing views on dealing with the recession. Economic Crisis In December 2710, Aloria entered one of the largest recessions in history, which included a housing market correction, soaring food prices and a declining Alorik value. In February 2712, a few months after Johnson was made President, 63,000 jobs were lost. To aid with the situation, Johnson signed a nearly 200 billion ALO economic stimulus package which aimed to improve the economic situation by sending tax rebate checks to many Alorians and providing tax breaks for struggling businesses. This caused the largest spending bill in Alorian history, with a budget of over 485 billion ALO. In August 2713, the crisis became much more serious beginning with the government involvement of Rockygroup Inc., the largest centuries old private companie in Aloria, owning almost 8% of Aloria's business interests. Many conservative congress members, as well as influential members of the Johnson Administration, feared that the agency created by these regulations would merely be mimicking the private sector’s risky practices. The criticisms of the government's response to the economic crisis primarily consisted of condemnations of mismanagement and lack of leadership in the relief efforts in response to the crisis. More specifically, the criticism focused on the delayed response to bankrupcy ofmany famous Alorian companies. It was not until the spring of 2715 when Johnson really took steps to fight the economic crisis, proposing a monster budgetto stimulate the economy. Minister of Foreign Affairs The Shepherd islands Post-political life ---- see also: List of Presidents of Aloria see also: List of Minister-Presidents of Sildar Category:Aloria Category:Presidents of Aloria Category:Alorian politicians